Government of Canada Celebrates World's Tallest Wood Building at UBC

VANCOUVER, Sept. 15, 2016 /CNW/ - Our government sees forestry as a high-value, high-tech industry, leading the way in innovation and playing a central role in the fight against climate change.

Canada's Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Jim Carr, today visited the University of British Columbia's campus to celebrate the "topping out" of the Brock Commons Residence. This 53-metre, 18-storey building is the tallest wood frame building of its kind in the world.

The Brock Commons Residence, part of UBC's Student Housing Growth Strategy, uses cross-laminated timber as its primary building material, a technology that greatly increases the technical limits for tall wood construction. The Government of Canada is contributing $2.3 million toward the project through Natural Resources Canada's Tall Wood Building Demonstration Initiative, which is part of the Government of Canada's strategy to help expand the North American market for Canadian wood products by encouraging the use of wood in construction.

Wood is a sustainable and versatile building material that stores carbon dioxide (CO2). By using wood, UBC's latest residence will store over 1,750 metric tonnes of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gases, which is the equivalent of removing 511 cars from Canada's roads for a year.

Quote"This remarkable building, the first of its kind in the world, is another shining example of Canadian ingenuity and innovation, an apt demonstration of how Canada's forest industry is finding new opportunities through technology and innovation — opening up a world of possibilities for our forest and construction industries."